The internal race of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to select parliamentary candidates was held over the weekend on Saturday, January 27, 2024, across the country in constituencies where the party had a sitting Member of Parliament.
It is established that several Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), and other heads of state institutions participated in the contest and won.
By this feat, it means the individuals will be contesting on the tickets of their party in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Even though there is nothing wrong with the decision of any qualified citizen desiring to serve his/her country to offer him or herself such national duties, heads of state institutions who contested their party's primaries and won, should be relieved of their appointments.
This is to enable them to have full concentration to prosecute their campaign towards the 2024 general elections.
Running for parliamentary elections involves very tight and tough activities that require the full attention of candidates.
Maintaining their positions while crisscrossing the country to sell their messages to their various constituencies, is likely to impede their work as CEOs, thus impacting the the state negatively.
It is important to emphasize that the Ghanaian people expect effective service from their public servants thus, will create a bad impression for the government of the day if citizens visit the offices of these CEOs only to realize they are absent while on the field campaigning.
If the President asks them to stay off their posts and appoint other persons to serve in those capacities, it will be in the supreme interest of the country and the party at large.
The president should also consider appointees including ministers and deputy ministers of state who run for primaries and lost. With few months left, there is the tendency for such a category of appointees to amass resources for themselves to be able to balance the financial losses incurred and this will be at the expense of the state.